Indgineous people arrived in Washington County, Ohio more than 2000 years ago. Evidence supports that our per-historic cultures came and went, but that all of them lived in well-organized societies. Today we do not know exacly why one culture surplanted another.

Prehistoric culture's have left behind their artifacts for us to try to interpret: effiges in stone and mica, pottery, projectile points, the ghosts of villages, mounds use for cememonies or burials, and much more.

American Indian migrations in Ohio - FamilySearch.org: Tribes and Bands of Ohio:

"There were eight prominent tribes comprising the Ohio Territory. The Delaware, Chippewa and Ottawa tribes could be found scattered throughout the Ohio country."

When Europeans entered our area the majority of tribes sided with the French as they thought the French focus on hunting and trapping was a better way to avoid being overrun by settlers. The British and the Colonists defeated the French and proclaimed the Ohio Country to be a territory for Indians in the Royal Proclamation of 1763.

Following the American Revolution, the U.S. government changed the British policy and, in 1785, the Northwest Ordinance opened the area to settlement. A massive movement of settlers flowing down the Ohio River began. The influx led to the Ohio Indians Wars of the 1790s.


Charles Whittlesey, 1837 in Ancient Monuments of the Mississippi Valley by Squire and Davis
Map of Marietta Earthworks

Heironymous Rowe at Wikipedia Commens

 

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division: "The Indians giving a talk to Colonel Bouquet in a conference at a council fire, near his camp on
the banks of Muskingum in North America in Oct. 1764"
French Indian meeting image

Catahecassa's Appeal to President Jefferson 1802

Black Hoof, 1731-1831, the Shawnee chief called Ca-ta- he-cassa, fought for 40 years to hold lands north of the Ohio River. Catahecass was among the tribe leaders who signed the Treaty of Greene Ville following the defeat of the allied Indian tribes at the Battle of Fallen Timbers. The Indians were given $20,000 worth of good and each signer was given $9500 of goods every year. His statements indicate that the goods did not fulfill the tribes' needs.

Black Hoof visited President Jefferson early in 1802 and made the following requests and complaints:

“We live in a bad place for farming, the water is very bad in the summers; if you turn your head back you will hear the lamentations of our women and children, distressed for want of clothing and by hunger, we hope you will pity them and relieve them. It is our desire to live like good neighbors, as long as the grass grows and the water runs in the rivers.”

“The second request we make is that you will stop your people from killing our game, at present they kill more than we do; they would be very angry if we were to kill a cow or a hog of theirs, the little game that remains is very dear to us.”

“We hope every request will be granted and we beg your assistance in getting all necessary farming tools, and those for building houses, that we may go to work as quickly as possible, and likewise to furnish us with some domestic animals.”


Family Search.org Genealogy: Indians of Ohio

U.S. gov: A Guide to Tracing American Indian & Alaska Native Ancestry (PDF file)

National Archives: American Indian Records in the National Archives

Ohio Histroy Central Online Articles:

Ohio History Connection: Virtual First Ohioans

Encyclopaedia Britannica: Hopewell Culture

National Park Service: Ohio Archeology

Library of Congress: 1764 Thomas Hutchin's Map of the Ohio and Muskingum Rivers showing the situation of the Indian Towns with respect to the Army under the command of Colonel Boquet

Ohio History Journal: Report of Field Work Carried on in the Muskingum, Scioto, and Ohio Valleys 1896 - by Warren K. Moorehead.

Shelburn Films Trailer: Opening the Door West The story of the pioneers who settled Ohio and the Old Northwest Territory. And the story of the story of the Native Americans they met there.

The Ancient Ohio Trails: Marietta and the Muskingum Valley

Wkikipedia Commons: Map of The Ohio Country with battles and masacres between 1775 and 1794

Eastern Shawnee Tribes Digital Collection: Charles Whittlesey Letter, 1774

Signers of Fort Harmar and Greenville Treaties

National Arcives, Docs Teach: Treaty of Greenville, 1795

Wyandotte Nation: Ohio's Trail of Tears

Ohio Link Library Catalog: The other Trail of Tears : the removal of the Ohio Indians / Mary Stockwell

Family Search.org: Indians of Ohio

Western Reserve Public Media: One State, Many Nations. Native Americans of Ohio

The Brookline Connection Native Americans Of The Eastern Ohio Country

Smithsonian's National American Indian Museum
National Museum of the American Indian
National Mall
Fourth Street & Independence Ave., S.W.
Washington, DC 20560


Digitized Books available on the Web

Dodge, Jacob Richards, Red Men of the Ohio Valley(1860)

Michener,Charles Hallowell, Ohio Annals: Historic Events in the Tuscarawas and Muskingum Valleys (1876)

Thomas, Cyrus, The Circular, Square,and Octagonal Earthworks of Ohio(1899)